Contents

Background

Extreme Rules featured professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds, plots, and storylines which will play out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown. Wrestlers portray villains or heroes as they follow a series of events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.

On the episode of Raw following WrestleMania 29, Alberto Del Rio lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Dolph Ziggler after Ziggler cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to take advantage of Del Rio being injured by Jack Swagger to become the new champion. Del Rio tried to invoke his rematch clause the following week, but was again impeded by Swagger. Teddy Long then set up a match between Ziggler and Swagger, and Swagger won. Booker T, irate at Long for going above him, rearranged the match into a triple threat match for the championship between Ziggler, Del Rio, and Swagger. On the April 29, episode of Raw, Del Rio's personal Ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez won a triple threat match against Zeb Colter and Big E. Langston to determine the stipulation for the match, which would later be a ladder match selected by Del Rio. On the May 6 edition of Raw, Del Rio defeated Ziggler via disqualification when Swagger attacked both men with a ladder, resulting in Ziggler suffering a concussion. As a result of his injury, Ziggler was removed from the PPV, and the next week on Raw, Senior Advisor Teddy Long announced Del Rio and Swagger would instead wrestle in an "I Quit match", for the #1 contendership to the World title.

At WrestleMania, Triple H defeated Brock Lesnar in their rematch. Lesnar's manager, Paul Heyman issued one final match between Lesnar and Triple H: a steel cage match at Extreme Rules. On the April 22 episode of Raw in London, England, Triple H accepted the match by assaulting Heyman with a Pedigree. Twoo weeks later on Raw, Lesnar would respond by going to WWE Headquarters and trashing Triple H's office and attacking nearby employees.

The day after WrestleMania, John Cena who defeated The Rock for the WWE Championship, would issue a challenge to anybody to challenge him for the title after news had broke that Rock would have to undergo surgery. Mark Henry would come forward and face him in a match for a shot at the title later in the night, but would lose via count-out. Henry would assault Cena afterward until Ryback seemingly came to save Cena but instead attacked Cena and held the title high in the air, thus turning heel. The following week, Ryback explained he was living in Cena's shadow and Cena never helped him against The Shield. Ryback would watch The Shield attack Cena from the ramp. Prior to the April 22 episode of Raw, it was announced that Cena would defend the WWE Championship against Ryback. Later that night, Ryback would confront Mick Foley about his decision to attack Cena. Cena would come and save Foley, but The Shield would come out and attack both men. Cena retreated up to the ramp to see Ryback get assaulted by The Shield, but he would assault all three members with a chair, forcing The Shield to retreat, and gave Ryback an Attitude Adjustment. On the May 6 edition of Raw, Ryback would make the title match an Last man Standing Match. Later that night, both men would drive away The Shield only for Ryback to attack Cena with a chair in retaliation. A week later on Raw, Ryback would attack Cena and his injured Achilles tendon with a chair following Cena being attacked by The Shield after a six-man elimination match which ended in disqualification.

Mark Henry would attack Sheamus backstage twice on the April 12 edition of SmackDown and the April 15 edition of Raw. Sheamus would then attack Henry backstage as a result before going to embarrass Henry in a tug of war contest on the April 29 episode of raw and an Arm Wrestling contest on the May 3 episode of SmackDown. A few days later on Raw, both men agreed to a match on the PPV. After Sheamus defeated Wade Barrett in a singles match, Henry would immediately attack sheamus with a belt, ultimately making their match a Strap match. A week later on Raw, Sheamus would attack Mark Henry with two leather straps.

After Big Show speared all three members of The Shield at Wrestlemania 29, Randy Orton tagged himself and that gave The Shield the victory. Afterwards, Big Show knocked out both Orton and Sheamus. Both Orton and Sheamus would get their revenge on Show by defeating him twice in handicap matches on the April 12 edition of Smackdown and the April 15 edition of Raw, but Show would team up with Mark Henry to defeat Sheamus and Orton on the April 19 edition of Smackdown. On the May 3 edition of Smackdown, he defeated Damien Sandow in a singles match only afterwards for Big Show to interfere and Sandow attacked Orton post-match. After defeating Sandow in a second straight singles match three days later on Raw, Show knocked out Orton as Orton was about to head to the locker room. Prior to the May 10 edition of Smackdown, it was announced that Orton and Show would fight in an Extreme Rules match on the PPV.

A minor rivalry continued between Chris Jericho and Fandango when Jericho made fun of Fandango's name backstage on the March 22nd, 2013 edition of Raw. Fandango would begin to interfere in Jericho's matches afterwards, setting a match (Fandango's debut match) between the two at WrestleMania 29, in which Fandango won. On the May 6th, 2013 edition of Raw, Fandango would suffer his first loss via countout to R-Truth when the judges (Jericho and Tons of Funk) gave Truth a much better rating as a dancer. A week later on Raw, Jericho and Fandango would face off in a dance off, but Fandango's dance parter Summer Rae feigned an injury, which distracted Jericho and led to Fandango attacking him.

Event

The first match on the card, broadcast for free as part of the pre-show, was between Cody Rhodes and The Miz. Miz defeated Cody using the Figure-Four Leg Lock after reversing two of Rhodes' attempts at Cross Rhodes.

The first match of the pay-per-view and second of the night was between Chris Jericho and Fandango. During the match, Fandango managed to make the ropes while Jericho had the Walls of Jericho locked in, but Jericho eventually picked up the win using the Codebreaker.

The third match of the night was a United States Championship match between reigning champion Kofi Kingston and Dean Ambrose of The Shield. Ambrose made his entrance with the other Shield members, but they left before the match started, leaving Ambrose alone with Kingston. During the match, Kingston landed the Trouble in Paradise and knocked Ambrose out of the ring, but instead of letting him get counted out, Kofi brought him back into the ring and tried to get the pin, which lead to Ambrose winning with the Headlock Driver.

The fourth match of the night was a strap match between Mark Henry and Sheamus. Sheamus won after landing a Brogue Kick and touching all four turnbuckles in succession.

The seventh match of the night was an Extreme Rules match between Big Show and Randy Orton. During the match, Big Show landed a Chokeslam, but Orton kicked out. Orton later landed an RKO, but Show kicked out. He then landed an RKO onto a steel chair, but opted to go for the punt kick instead of pinning him. He successfully landed the punt and pinned Show for the victory.

The eighth match of the night was a Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship between reigning champion John Cena and Ryback. Both men stood up after huge moves, but the match came to an end when Ryback slammed Cena through the electronically lit wall on the stage, severely injuring him and leaving both down for the 10-count, making the match a no-contest.

The ninth match and main event of the pay-per-view was a Steel Cage match between Brock Lesnar and Triple H. Triple H worked Lesnar's leg for the majority of the match and brought in a sledgehammer that he had hidden on top of the cage, but Lesnar ended up winning with an F-5 thanks in part to interference from Paul Heyman.